hmm
good the 500min is back BUT
looks like they raised it up some miles, and some routa a lot noting that C went up a lot (incl routes with the new C)
Code:
Within U.S. (excluding Hawaii) and Canada 25,000 45,000-50,000 60,000-70,000
To Hawaii 35,000-40,000 75,000-80,000 90,000-100,000
To Caribbean or Central America 35,000 60,000 80,000
To South America 50,000-55,000 80,000-100,000 110,000-135,000
To Europe 50,000-55,000 80,000-105,000 120,000-135,000
To Japan, North Asia, South Asia 60,000-65,000 90,000-125,000 120,000-145,000
To Central Asia via the Atlantic 80,000 120,000 160,000
To Australia or New Zealand 80,000 110,000-135,000 140,000-160,000
To Oceania 80,000 120,000-135,000 150,000-160,000
To Middle East 75,000 115,000 140,000-145,000
To Africa 80,000 120,000 160,000
Effective July 1, 2009, we are generally reducing the miles required and will collect a co-pay when miles are redeemed to upgrade a United Economy ticket. (Upgrade awards requested prior to the effective date for travel after the effective date will not be affected.)
So this is good... at least gives a lot of time..
It seems SWU doesn't require co-pay?
Mileage upgrade awards require less miles but $$ as co-pay
This is huge!!!!
Thanks for the heads-up
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For saver*A awards from N America, only Caribbean, Oceania, Africa and Central Asia are the same in all classes, all other regions are up by as little as 5K miles (Y award to Hawaii, Europe, S America, Asia) to as much as up by 25K (F award to South America, North Asia, Australia).
If you read it carefully, they are applying the 500 mile minimum to elites retroactively so it's like it never went away!
"And, this policy change will be applied retroactively to United flights flown between July 1, 2008, and December 31, 2008. By the end of this year, we will update the flights flown as an elite member during that time. The update will apply the 500-mile minimum (for redeemable miles and Elite Qualifying Miles) and will adjust any class-of-service bonuses, elite bonuses and promotional bonuses."
Location: WLG, MSP, or the forward most A seat in Y I can get
Programs: UA 1P
Posts: 232
Prediction: This thread will get a lot of posts
Analysis: The net effect of the changes are ambiguous.
Positive: If you do a lot of short hops (500 mile minimum back, and backdated!), redeem only in US (unchanged award levels), and either don't upgrade with miles, or upgrade only from Y/B.
If you're an elite booked in Y/B you mostly get a complimentary upgrade request, so the lack of copay is meaningless here.
Negative: If you use miles to upgrade on long haul flights booked into economy classes with moderate restrictions, significant copay now required.
Award redemption: Some significant increases. The Australia - NZ bargains (20K in Y, 30K in C) that used to exist are gone (35K in Y, 50K in C). Some significant (20% greater) increases in other places too.
It's Time To Fly on the airline that's uniting the world. 
